We met up with our own Chris Dishman (Sr. VP of CS)—also a former Totango customer! During our coffee chat, he shared his first "a-ha!" moment in Totango and tips for empowering individual performers to drive company goals.
Read more about the conversation below. And join us next time live for Coffee Chats!
1. CS "flavor" wheel
Chris is formally known as an "SVP of Customer Success," where he spends his time with his executive team to make sure all teams are aligned on top level goals with regard to retention and growth. He also supports and manages all of his customer-facing team members. He went STAR crazy for customers because at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.
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"My goal is to make sure customers are getting value out of the product, so I spend quite a bit of time with customers to make sure we are aligned." |
Chris's "Totango constellation" is as obsessed with customers as Kristin is with espresso tonics! IYKYK...
2. My first Totango "a-ha!" moment was...
Chris summarized his moment when he realized the power of real-time notifications via segment triggers. For example, as soon as a customer moved into risk, he could receive an email notification and immediately jump into the account's timeline to review—sometimes faster than the CSM on the account could even update their notes!
"You can apply the same types of notifications for growth, such as alerting you whenever a customer is reaching a certain point in their utilization."
3. How do YOU use Totango?
Chris showcased two techniques for how he uses Totango, particularly with executive leadership:
Review segments in team planning meetings: Update notes in real time within the segment view. Chris is particularly fond of using an attribute to capture "risk action" to keep next steps succinct and visible to all.
Review executive dashboards: When I'm reviewing with my executive team and board, I can talk about forecasts at a high level. Inevitably, the team wants to know more details, such as what's causing churn in a particular segment. I then can quickly drill into the segment from the scorecard to see details.
4. Leaving room
Thanks to our coffee chatter friends who sweetened our brew with great questions:
- Use touchpoints to capture notes, and be sure to use flows to sort engagements on the timeline.
- When using the Plan summary, you can treat it as a running log or capture high level business outcomes—the customer's north star. It all depends on what your leadership wants to see there.
- As a new CS leader, ensure your teams are actively following the same processes on recording activity. That way, data going into the system is consistent and visible, which builds trust with the executive team.